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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

SPOILERS: Detective Comics #950

After this issue, even if it is just wrapping up everyone else's stories in a nice little package, I think Detective Comics might secretly be the most important Bat book in terms of continuity.

The Spoilers:

With this issue being a big oversized anniversary issue, the story is broken up into three parts, that first (and majority) of which deals with Cassandra Cain.

The story shows Cassandra and her frustration with her inability to speak her mind and thus relate to her friends and teammates. She sees herself as someone who can identify with others like Clayface or Batwoman, but has no ability to express that feeling. This leads to self doubt, confusion and frustration... which can be read by one other person, Lady Shiva. (psst, I tweeted the cover of #951 earlier today).

The second story is focused on Azrael and Batwing; one a man of god, the other a man of science. Luke picks JPV's mind about religion, science and the order of St. Dumas. The two end up having a very civil conversation about their beliefs, which is pretty fucking unrealistic by today's standards, shots intended. In the end, it all leads to the Order of St. Dumas having a backup Azrael that's basically a straight up robot, it seems.

The final takes place months before Tim's death. Tim, being observant, notices Batman is making a play at something. Nightwing has ties in Spyral and the Court of Owls, Red Hood has eyes on the criminal underworld, Damian is in the Teen Titans, Duke is trying to be something other than Robin and now there's a whole new team in Gotham. Tim jokes "what's next, you're own personal Justice League" speaking of which... Anyways, it all leads to Tim "bluntly" asking what Bruce is up to, almost sarcastically suggesting he's preparing for war, to which Bruce has no response.

The Opinion:

I really enjoyed this issue. Like I said at the top, the final story in this issue, short as it may be, makes it seem like this is by far the most important book in Bat continuity, for sure. Now, based on what was said around Rebirth's launch this may have been planned, but it may just be a clever way to tie everything together after the fact, regardless, seems cool as hell. The Cassandra story was great, I'm totally ready for her to get her spotlight this next arc. The Azrael story left me a little cold. Robot Azrael, or whatever we want to refer to that thing as for the time being, just didn't really pique my interest at the moment. I did enjoy how JPV and Luke interacted though, it was refreshing given the day and age.

3 comments
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So I guess the AI azrael will lead into a upcoming story arc. It's pretty cool each member of the team gets a story arc about them. I wonder if the upcoming war Batman is preparing for is the Synder/Capullo event